Austin Hill opens Xfinity Season with third consecutive win at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Austin Hill won the Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway for the third consecutive year in Monday’s rain-rescheduled season-opener.

Hill won driving the No. 21 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. It capped a Chevrolet sweep at Daytona this weekend as Nick Sanchez won the Truck Series race for Spire Motorsports on Friday night, and William Byron won the Daytona 500 for Hendrick Motorsports earlier Monday.

The Xfinity Series race was initially scheduled for Saturday afternoon, postponed to early Monday, then moved to Monday night when it was still raining at the start of the day. It closed out a doubleheader with the Daytona 500.

Hill had to overcome a myriad of issues throughout the race — from an early crash to issues on pit road — to hold off former teammate Sheldon Creed by 0.591 seconds for the win. It’s the seventh win of Hill’s career, with two other Xfinity Series victories coming at his home track of Atlanta Motor Speedway, where NASCAR races next week.

Parker Retzlaff and Jordan Anderson finished third and fourth to give Chevrolet three drivers in the top-four. Riley Herbst in sixth was the highest-finishing Ford driver.

Shane van Gisbergen finished 12th as last year’s Cup winner at Chicago made his Xfinity Series debut. Frankie Muniz, the actor making a transition to motorsports, finished 33rd in his series debut.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

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